Profile of Paul Heyman on Famous Like Me

Paul Heyman (born September 11, 1965 in Scarsdale, New York) is a professional wrestling manager, on-air talent, and former promoter. He is best known for being the creative force behind Extreme Championship Wrestling's rise to prominence in the 1990s.

Career

World Championship Wrestling

Paul Heyman debuted in 1986. While a manager in WCW and the AWA, he was known as Paul E. Dangerously, and many in the business still refer to him as "Paul E." In WCW, he was known as the manager of the Dangerous Alliance, made up of Rick Rude, Arn Anderson, Steve Austin, Bobby Eaton and Larry Zbyszko. Madusa was his assistant. He was also the manager of the Original Midnight Express, Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose, in the AWA and WCW. They feuded with the Midnight Express, Eaton and Stan Lane, while Heyman feuded with their manager, Jim Cornette.

Extreme Championship Wrestling

Main Article: Extreme Championship Wrestling

Heyman acquired ECW from its founder, Tod Gordon, after the ECW Barely Legal PPV. Because of Heyman's love for wrestling, combined with his ability to book matches that the crowd would love, he earned the nicknames "The Evil Genius of Wrestling" and "The Mad Scientist of Wrestling". Heyman introduced several new types of matches to the American audience, such as "The Barbed Wire Death Match" and "The Exploding Ring Death Match." Such matches were never before seen in the WWF or WCW, thus solidifying Heyman's reputation as an outlaw in the world of pro wrestling. Heyman also brought lucha libre wrestling to American TV, an event which inspired the WWF and WCW to follow suit.

WWF/WWE

After ECW folded, Heyman became a broadcaster for the WWF, alongside Jim Ross on RAW. Later he turned heel by creating the ECW Alliance. He was "fired" but came back to be the manager of Brock Lesnar. He led Lesnar to the WWE Undisputed Championship when Lesner beat The Rock at SummerSlam 2002. Heyman then turned on Lesnar and helped The Big Show win the title. Just before Lesnar title match against Kurt Angle at WrestleMania XIX, Lesner challenged his former manager to a steel cage match. After his defeat, Heyman left for a while, until he later returned to assume the on-camera role of General Manager of the Thursday Night Show SmackDown!, until March 22, 2004, when, according to the storyline, he quit after he was drafted to Eric Bischoff's RAW. Heyman was writing for SmackDown! during its more successful stint in early 2003 and now serves as a road agent for WWE. During 2004, Heyman's on-camera role was managing The Dudley Boyz, Spike Dudley, and Heidenreich.

Heyman's last appearance on SmackDown! saw him sealed in a coffin by The Undertaker during a handicap match which featured Heyman and Heidenreich vs. The Undertaker on January 6, 2005.

During Heyman's tenure on SmackDown!, he served as the head writer, who penned PPV-quality matches involving these six Superstars: Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Edge, Rey Mysterio, and Eddie and Chavo Guerrero. They were known as the "SmackDown! Six." But at the 2003 No Way Out PPV, it was announced that Heyman was removed from the SmackDown! writing team, mainly because of backstage political issues between him, Creative Director Stephanie McMahon and RAW writer Brian Gerwitz.Paul once said:"He can wrestle,he can brawl,Kurt Angle can do it all."

ECW One Night Stand

Paul Heyman was heavily involved in the booking and promotion of the June 12, 2005 ECW reunion PPV, ECW One Night Stand. Heyman returned to Raw on May 23, 2005 and confronted former WCW President Eric Bischoff, lauding ECW and criticizing WCW. Among other things, Heyman told him the following: "ECW was a lifestyle, it was anti-establishment, it was counter-culture, and it was up in your face!" Heyman finished it up by setting the ECW funeral wreath, which was ironically made out of barbed wire, on fire.

At One Night Stand, a visibly emotional Heyman came to the ring, got on his knees and bowed to the fans, who chanted "Thank you Paul!" He then cut a shoot promo mocking Bischoff ("You are in our House, Bitch!!"), Edge's offscreen love life ("I've got two words for you... Matt-Freakin'-Hardy!"), and JBL ("The only reason you were WWE Champion for a year was because Triple H didn't want to work Tuesdays!") (SmackDown! is taped on Tuesdays). Heyman then said "Now, one more time for old times sakes... right there so the whole world can see us... this ain't WCW... this ain't Monday Night RAW... this ain't SmackDown!... this ain't even the WWE... this my friends... is E-C-Fucking-W!" .

On this show, Heyman was portrayed as a face who successfully prevented the heels, Bischoff and his crusaders, from putting ECW out of business once and for all.

Ohio Valley Wrestling

On July 10, 2005, it was confirmed that Paul Heyman would be temporarily taking over the position of Head Booker, writer, and color commentator in OVW, a developmental territory maintained by the WWE. This position was recently vacated when Jim Cornette was fired for issues with WWE management. This role is now permanent, which suits Heymen admirably, OVW is closer in terms of exposure, audience, and atmoshphere, as ECW was, as a result of not having to deal with any other superiors barring the talent agents who call up any star he is presently booking. Heymen has been appluaded by wrestling fans for bringing a sense of intensity and drama into OVW in an ECW fashion.

Wrestlers managed by Paul Heyman

• Austin Idol
• Tommy Rich
• The Mercenaries
• Dennis Condrey
• Randy Rose
• Col Debeers
• Adrian Adonis
• Samoan Swat Team
• Mean Mark Calloway
• Dangerous Alliance (Arn Anderson, Rick Rude, Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Eaton, "Stunning" Steve Austin)
• Madusa
• Don Muraco
• Jimmy Snuka
• Eddie Gilbert
• Dark Patriot
• Sabu
• Taz/Tasmaniac
• 911
• Brock Lesnar
• Big Show
• Kurt Angle
• A-Train
• Garrison Cade
• Team Angle (Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas)
• The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley)
• Spike Dudley
• Heidenreich

Awards

• Heyman won the Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) Manager of the Year Award in 1992.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Paul Heyman